University of Delaware Symphony Orchestra - Robert Moran: Points of Departure (2020)

If you drew a Venn diagram showing the overlap of Handel, Pachelbel, Haydn, Wagner, Feldman, John Luther Adams, Philip Glass, and John Cage, it would only have one name in the middle: Robert Moran. His working style is the very essence of cosmopolitan: a refined artist with a unique and recognizable voice drawn from an amalgamation of diverse compositional techniques, all in the service of expressive art. Points of Departure gathers five orchestral works together that showcase the composer’s contemporary Romanticism, quirky Baroque-ness, and seductively throbbing Post-Minimalism. In a word, Moran-esque.

The University of Delaware Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of award-winning maestro James Allen Anderson, brings us this colorful compendium of works spanning 1973 to 2018. Some selections, like Angels of Silence, employ gorgeous harmonic clouds in a timeless sonic mobile (combined with the floating solo line of Romanian-American violist, Maria Rusu) or present organic aural forms generated by exploratory graphic notation, such as Star Charts and Travel Plans I. Others are teasingly reimagined arias from putative 17th Century Italian operas (sung dazzlingly by countertenor Daniel Bubeck). A different kind of love song appears in Yahrzeit, written in memory of Michael Neal Sitzer who passed away in 1995 from complications of AIDS. The work takes its inspiration from a poem by Sitzer’s partner, James Skofield. The poignant text blends imagery of nature with the passing of time and seasons, proclaiming that “love outlasts all seasons.” Originally written for men’s chorus and piano, this new version for orchestra and bass soloist (artfully crafted by Zachary James) is especially sublime. The album opens with Moran’s iconic and effervescent balletic romp, Points of Departure.

With crystalline orchestral sonorities, assuredly whimsical craft, and a direct emotional appeal, Points of Departure is a musical journey of a lifetime.